


Just Like That

by Mayarene Rose (Paradise_of_Mary_Jane)



Category: Avengers: Endgame - Fandom, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, Comic Book Style worldbuilding, Endgame Fix-It, F/M, Gen, Harley/Peter preslash, Hurt/Comfort, Post-Endgame, Tony Stark Lives, that is to say vague handwavey worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-28
Updated: 2019-04-28
Packaged: 2020-02-08 18:58:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,385
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18629305
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Paradise_of_Mary_Jane/pseuds/Mayarene%20Rose
Summary: The entire forest is silent which doesn’t make sense since there are so many people in it. And even if there wasn’t, even if it was just him and Tony and Pepper and Morgan and Happy, the forest’s never quiet. There was always laughter or amused voices or delighted screaming or maybe the whir of a repulsor bouncing between the trees.The silence makes Harley’s skin crawl. It makes him want to scream, if he can just bring himself to open his mouth.He's never gonna hear those things again. The thought chips away a little more at Harley.Harley fixes things. Everything about his world is broken right now. He finds a way to fix at least one thing.





	Just Like That

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, I wrote this in like, a day, so yes. If there are mistakes, please tell me. There will probably be a lot of mistakes.

_ It’s gonna be okay, kid,  _ the voice whispers, sound lost to the wind,  _ you’ll find a way to fix things. You always do. _

The voice has been there since… Since it happened. Harley likes to think it’s just because he’s going crazy and not something else.

He’s in a funeral full of superheroes, the world just lost Tony Stark, he doesn’t think that anyone can handle something else.

And it’s not that Harley’s hiding out in the back, arms clasped behind his back, looking at the ground, trying to disappear into the foliage. It’s just that out of everyone here, it’s pretty obvious he’s the guy that no one knows and definitely doesn’t belong.

“Harley? What are you doing over there? Come on and join us, kid.”

Harley’s head snaps up. He doesn’t think he’ll ever get used to Pepper’s soft, gentle tones. His mom is all Southern drawl overtaken by the stress of a single mother with two kids and Tony is-- _ was, Tony was-- _ Tony was Tony. 

Pepper is different. Pepper’s all nice, even, tones of unfailing kindness.

It hurts to hear the waver in her voice now, though. Lots of things hurt about this day, lots of things hurt about the last five years, but Harley thinks that that one really takes the cake.

Harley knows he’s been staring too long at the river, at that bouquet of flowers and the arc reactor sitting right in the center of it, as it slowly drifts off towards… Towards someplace else. It hurts trying to think about the fact that the flowers are only symbolic and that no matter how much Harley wants to jump into the river and snatch up the arc reactor as some way of giving the universe the finger, it’s not actually gonna do a damn thing except probably make Pepper cry.

Harley wishes, not for the first time, that there was something he can do that wasn’t standing around and waiting for superheroes to fix things for him.

He heads over to where Pepper’s sitting, right at the patio next to Morgan. Harley more or less manages to keep his head held high, though he’s not admitting how  _ hard  _ that was. There are superheroes all around. There’s a literal king and princess standing right next to him, just a few yards away. It’s hard not to feel small around those people.

Which is. Weird. It’s weird. Harley never had that problem before. Not in this log cabin. Not anywhere Tony’s touched. Harley’s been to the Avengers Facility once, he’s been to Stark tower a lot, and he’s never felt small. Not with his second-hand shoes or country drawl or the fact that everyone around him is about three times his age and knows a hell of a lot more.

Harley’s never felt small before. He feels small know. He’s pretty sure it’s not because he’s standing with the Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.

He sits down right between Happy and Morgan. Morgan automatically tucks herself under her arm, already dozing off. Poor kid. This might be the only time Harley’s seen her not be a hyperactive nightmare.

Kid’s probably going through her own nightmares. Object permanence is a hard thing to explain to a five-year-old. No one can really explain to her that her dad’s never coming home again. No one has the heart to do it, either. Not really. Not in-depth.

Pepper sits across from him. She watches him, gaze a little distant, a little misty. Harley thinks he should say something. He doesn’t know what, though.

They just stare at each other. Happy’s quiet, too, which he never is. The entire forest is silent which doesn’t make sense since there are so many people in it. And even if there wasn’t, even if it was just him and Tony and Pepper and Morgan and Happy, the forest’s never quiet. There was always laughter or amused voices or delighted screaming or maybe the whir of a repulsor bouncing between the trees.

The silence makes Harley’s skin crawl. It makes him want to scream, if he can just bring himself to open his mouth.

“How are you, Harley?” Pepper finally asks.

“I--” His voice comes out rough. He doesn’t know what it was he meant to say, only that it was probably the wrong thing.

That was weird, too. Harley never used to care about saying the wrong thing.

Harley shakes himself and tries again. “I think I should be the one asking you that,” he says, and his voice still comes out a little too rough but he’s going to pretend it didn’t.

He’s still pretty sure he’s not saying the right thing.

Pepper smiles a little half-smile. It makes her look sadder, somehow. “I guess none of us really have a good answer for that right now, do we?”

She still speaks in that same gentle, even tone, the one she used on him when he turned up at her doorstep five years ago, pale and trembling, sobbing like a little kid because his mother and sister were there one minute and then they weren’t. 

Like  _ she  _ was the one who had to be careful with  _ him. _

It makes zero sense. Harley doesn’t understand. He doesn’t know anyone who’s been as careful with him as Pepper always is.

“I was in New York when it happened,” he says, though Pepper already knows this. “I--I was just at school, you know? It was stupid. I think I was out getting take out when everyone started appearing again and--” His voice breaks. Harley hates himself for it. He hates the way he melts when Pepper places a hand on his knee and looks at him with such kind, caring eyes.

Harley blinks past the wetness in his own, wiping at his cheeks. It’s stupid. Everything about this entire thing, about him being in New York in a college dorm while the world was ending, bickering with his roommate about homework. 

It’s so stupid. It’s so goddamn stupid.

“I’m sorry,” he says. He doesn’t know why he says it, only that it needs to be said.

“Harley…”

And all of a sudden, Pepper’s holding him in her arms and Harley’s holding her in his and Morgan is jostled awake and probably looking at them with wide, confused eyes while Happy is trying to hold her too. 

Harley would hate himself for that fact that he’s trembling so much he thinks he’s about to break apart if it weren’t for the fact that it feels like it’s only his arms keeping Pepper upright.

\--

_ “Hey kid. Kid. Hey, kid. You gotta pay attention, kid. C’mon. Look at me.” _

_ “Where am I?” _

_ “Not important right now. I got a job for you kid, you think you’re up for it?” _

_ “I--what--How are you--How is this--This is a dream--” _

_ “Kid! Kid! Hey kid, you don’t have time to panic right now, alright? I got a job for you.” _

_ “Is this a dream?” _

_ “Not important. Besides, wouldn’t make a difference, would it?” _

_ “How are you  _ talking  _ to me?” _

_ “All in good time my young padawan.” _

_ “Did you  _ seriously  _ just Star Wars reference me?” _

_ “Not. Important. I got a job for you, kid. Are you up for it or not?” _

_ “You know I am.” _

\--

Going back home to Tennessee is more than a little bit surreal.

Harley hasn’t been back since… Since it happened. Hadn’t wanted to come back, really. Too many bad memories mixed in with good ones. He’d rather not see either.

Except now, five years have passed and his mom and his little sister are back as if nothing’s changed. They’re not just memories anymore. Pepper said it was okay. Pepper practically shoved him onto the plane, told him to go see his family and keep in touch. And she was blinking back tears again but Pepper Potts can never be called fragile, only sturdy. Harley doesn’t know what he wanted to say to her then, only that he knows he doesn’t want to go. He wants to see his mom and his sister but he doesn’t want to go.

He swallows up whatever he has to say and goes back to that little town in Tennessee; that town his mom always told him never changed and will never change.

A lot of things have changed since he’s last been back.

Almost the entire town was wiped when it happened. There were like, three people left, and Harley was one of them. No one really had the heart to do anything to the town, and they didn’t have the time to take care of it. Which is a good thing. Five years later, and the town wakes up to some place they know. It’s half-falling apart but they know it, this stupid, unchanging town, and maybe they can start from there.

Harley doesn’t know if he can start anywhere. Not when coming back feels like an end, somehow.

It’s hard to have new beginnings. His world ended five years ago. He’s just been barely surviving since then.

Harley’s not the kid he used to be but everything else in the town is. Everything is just five years out of place. His mom and his sister hug him tight when he opens the familiar but not familiar front door, like they’re not gonna let go, and Harley hugs them back because he feels the same way. 

Except things are different now. His mom and his sister are five years too young and Harley is five years too old.

It’s like looking at a photograph or like those home movies, not that their family had much of those. But it’s just. It’s different. Harley’s looking at his mom, at his sister, and they don’t quite feel like  _ his.  _ They feel like something that was his. Something that owned a little part of him once but disappeared along with pieces of his heart. 

They look like the people he loved five years ago. Harley’s not sure he’s the same person he was back then.

His mom must see something too because she hugs him again, with a fierceness he thinks he remembers and says to him, “we’ll always love you, you know that?”

“I know, Ma,” he says to her. She pulls away to look him in the eye, eyes burning but never wavering.

“I knew we’d never get to keep you long,” she says. “My boy’s always been too big for this town, haven’t you? I’ve told you once before Harley Keener, and I’ll tell you a million times over: you never let anything hold you back. You find a way out of here, you take it, and you don’t look back. Not for anything.”

“Ma…”

“And you’ve already found it, haven’t you, boy?” There’s some kind of pride there, mixed in with sadness. Harley doesn’t understand what’s happening.

“Ma I’m not just going to  _ leave  _ you, not after I just--” He stops, throat too thick.  _ Not after I just got you back. _

_ I just got home. Why are you trying to send me away again? _

Except that’s wrong too. Tennessee hasn’t been home for him. Not for a long time now.

Home for the past five years was Pepper, Tony, and later on Morgan. Home was Happy complaining the day away. Home was carrying Morgan on his shoulders and making her laugh because her laughter always makes Harley smile.

New York isn’t Tennessee, could never be someplace that sunk deep into his bones the way Rosehill did, but.

Harley left Rosehill behind five years ago. He can’t come back so easily.

“Oh haven’t you heard of a phone you silly boy,” his mom says. “Call us up whenever you want to. You know someone will always answer.”

“The last time you disappeared--”

“We’ll always be here, Harley,” his mom says, sounding almost gentle. She cups his cheek. Harley’s almost forgotten what her touch felt like. “We’re never gonna leave again, unless your sister here finds herself her own billionaire. You’re not gonna lose us. But I’ll be damned if we’re the ones to hold you back from the life you’ve built.”

“You stay here for as long as you need,” his mom says, “but we both know you’re not gonna want to stay forever.”

Harley takes a deep breath. The choice has already been made, by him, and by everyone around him, it seems. The choice has been made five years ago and there’s no going back. He just can’t bring himself to agree to it yet. He thinks about Pepper and Happy and Morgan, the only people he’s had the past five years; not quite his family but they were all he’s had. He thinks about New York which is big and loud and something he’ll never understand because it’s impossible to understand, because there’s always something new about it.

He thinks about Tony, who pulled him out of this stupid town and kept giving him his stupid tech and his stupid schematics, telling him to do something about it and make his own. He thinks about how Tony was the only thing that kept him so busy in New York he didn’t have to think about grieving about the world, told him to talk when he needed, to anyone, to him or to Happy or Pepper, if he wanted to, but understood Harley a little too well and knew Harley spoke better with things in his hands, when he had something to do.

_ Just keep fixing things, kid. Keep building. It’s what you’re good at. _

Harley thinks about not belonging to a place, only to a couple of people. Except the people he belongs to belongs to different places and for some reason, Harley has to choose only one.

It’s. It’s not fucking fair. The thought is so small and childish and Harley hates himself and everything around him for. 

For everything.

He thinks about a lot of things. None of them make sense. Harley doesn’t know what to do with any of it.

He thinks about what Tony would have done except what Tony would have done would have probably been something stupid and heroic and gotten him killed. Harley needs better role models. Preferably ones who are not dead. Preferably ones who aren’t self-sacrificing assholes.

“Harley,” his sister says. “Don’t forget us when you’re a superhero.”

“I’m not a superhero, squirt,” he says. “I’m just a kid in a garage.”

“Whatever.” His sister waves him off. “Just don’t forget us, okay?”

“I won’t,” he says, and he’s more sure of that than anything he’s ever said. Harley’s the absolute worst at forgetting.

It’s the only thing he’s sure of right now.

\--

_ “So this job…” _

_ “Hush and listen to your elders.” _

_ “Ha! So you admit you are old!” _

_ “I did no such thing.” _

_ “Did too.” _

_ “Did not.” _

_ “Did too.” _

_ “Okay, I’m gonna stop you right there. What are you, five? Don’t answer that. I got a job for you and I need your complete and utter focus.” _

_ “You know for a dream you’re being very very demanding.” _

_ “Yeah well that’s life for you. And I told you, this is real. So. Focus. How do you feel about magic?” _

_ “Probably real but something I know nothing about.” _

_ “Really? Just like that?” _

_ “Everyone knows there are sorcerers in New York. They weren’t very subtle with those circle portal things.” _

_ “Okay, fine whatever. Don’t know, don’t care. Well better get learning, kid. Because you’re gonna need to do some magic.” _

\--

Harley goes back to New York, just like his mom tells him to. Pepper does too, along with Morgan. And it’s not like the big city is better than living in a farm or a forest, because it isn’t. It’s probably worse in the long run. 

It’s just that living in New York feels a lot closer to Tony than anything else ever could and well… they need that right now. They need to be with people right now. The last thing they need is to shut themselves away in the middle of nowhere.

Pepper opens up the penthouse at the tower again. It makes something seize up in Harley’s throat, being back there again. Seeing Morgan utterly baffled by the sight of a city is probably worse.

“You’ll always have a home with us, Harley,” Pepper tells him with a hug and kiss on a cheek. “Don’t push us away, okay?”

His room at the tower remains untouched. Like Pepper said, he always had a home there.

“Right back at you,” is what Harley says to her and she looks at him, almost surprised. Harley gives her a weak smile and a raised eyebrow. She returns the smile and they don’t say anything else.

They’re not his family, not really, but they might as well be.

Harley doesn’t tell anyone about the dreams because the dreams are stupid. They’re just some weird, fucked up form of coping mechanism that his mind made up because reality sucks and people like him, and Tony and a lot of guys, they like to feel in control.

And if he says one night, “Friday, open a file for me would you? And keep it between you and me. Absolutely no telling Pepper or Happy or anything,” then that’s between him and Friday, isn’t it?

“Sure thing, kid,” Friday says. “What’s it for?”

“I don’t know yet,” Harley says. “I just got a job to do.”

“That sounds reasonably vague.”

“I know right.” Harley chews his lower lip. He thinks about it for a moment. Just one moment. He can’t think things through too much or he’ll go crazy. “And can you do something else for me, Friday?”

“What is it, kid?”

“I need you to tell me where to find Peter Parker.”

\--

_ “Why don’t you go to your sorcerer friends for this? You know those guys who know actual magic? I don’t know shit. How do you think I’m gonna do this? This is your worst idea ever.” _

_ “Because I went to you.” _

_ “That is literally the vaguest, worst answer you could have possibly given me.” _

_ “I don’t know what to tell you, kid. I like you. I trust you to do this. You’ve never let me down before and you never will. That matters a lot with these kinds of things.” _

_ “I can’t do this.” _

_ “Sure you can. You’re a stubborn little shit. I’m pretty sure there’s no problem in the entire fucking universe Harley Keener can’t solve.” _

_ “You are literally the worst at pep talks. The absolute worse.” _

_ “Just get the job done, kid. Take it one step at a time and get the job done.” _

\--

“Parker I need your help.”

Okay, so maybe ambushing Peter Parker in his school hallway wasn’t Harley’s best idea. Sue him. It was his only idea.

Besides, it’s not like it was hard hacking himself into the system to get into the school. It was actually laughably easy. Harley probably has a moral responsibility to teach this school how to have better security.

Parker looks up in surprise and Harley thinks,  _ Jesus Christ, he really does have those goddamn puppy dog eyes.  _

“I’m sorry, you what--how do you--what?” Parker looks baffled, surprised, maybe a little terrified. Harley can’t believe this kid is an actual superhero. He’s looking at Harley--who’s got about half an inch on him, tops, and no superpowers--like Harley’s about to mug him.

Which. Strange guy in school suddenly ambushing him in school with those first words, Harley gets where he might have gotten that idea. He doesn’t know Harley, after all.

And that’s the thing. He probably  _ doesn’t  _ know Harley. The two of them have never actually met before. Harley was pretty busy with school and being in Tennessee while Parker was swinging around in New York being a furry, and Tony was busy running around the world being Iron Man or a billionaire or whatever it is he actually does to set up playdates or things like that. 

And then he got dusted. And that was the end of that possible friendship.

But Harley knew about Parker, of course he did. Tony can’t keep a secret to save his life and he kept a lot of pictures of Parker around his house. But even before that, Harley knew. Iron Man appearing with a new superhero named Spider-man and is all of a sudden rambling about a kid named Peter a lot whenever Harley pesters him about one thing or the other is the least subtle thing ever. Peter who is an intern in high school in Stark industries which never takes high school interns. Peter who is apparently very good in sciencing stuff, in Tony’s own words.

Honestly, it was the most obvious thing in the world, though he doesn’t tell Tony he knows. He seems embarrassed about it all. Harley always got the impression he doesn’t really want the two of them to meet. Like he didn’t want to know that he was nice to one kid from nowhere, let alone two.

Tony Stark has a heart, and all that. He just really, really wants you to believe otherwise. Harley can respect that.

For a moment, Harley considers being cryptic and annoying, God knows his dreams are, but cryptic and annoying is the least useful thing in the world, no matter what anyone says. Only the Avengers seem to think cryptic is a good idea and look where that got them?

He goes with blunt, instead.

“I think I might have a way to bring Tony back,” he says. “And I need your help to do it.”

Parker’s eyes widen more, if that were possible. Superhero, Harley has to remind himself, the kid he’s looking at is a superhero and not just another out of depth kid who knows nothing. It’s getting harder to convince himself and not just walk away from this stupid thing forever and scream into a pillow or something.

Parker grabs him by the shoulder with surprising (well, maybe not so surprising) strength and steers him towards an abandoned classroom. Harley’s already speaking before Parker lets go of his shoulder.

“Okay, so this is gonna sound really crazy, and it probably  _ is  _ crazy, but we just need to try, alright? Just one shot. I just need one shot. I need to try and I’m gonna need your help because I am not smart enough to do this alone.” Harley runs a hand through his hair, frustrated. So much for not being cryptic. “Look, this isn’t turning out how I planned. Let me start over. You probably don’t even know who I am,  _ Chris _ t--”

“Of course I know who you are,” Parker says. He swallows. Nervously, Harley thinks. Peter Parker--friggin’ Spider-man is nervous around him. “You’re Harley. You were at the--at the funeral. Tony talks-- _ talked _ \--about you all the time. He never even seems to notice he was doing it.”

“Yeah that sounds a lot like him,” Harley says. “He did the same thing with you.”

They’re quiet for a while. Parker’s probably late for class. He doesn’t seem to care, which Harley can also respect. He’s looking pretty hard at Harley, like he’s trying to figure him out. Harley doesn’t get why he has to do that. He doesn’t think he’s that hard to figure out, all things considered.

He doesn’t have anything to hide. Just a job to do. No secret identities. No world to save. All the cards on the table. Harley just needs to fix things, preferably as quickly and cleanly as possible.

He wants Tony back. He wants Pepper to smile her happy smile again. He wants Morgan to have a dad and he wants whatever Tony was to him and Peter was back.

Simple. Really, really simple. Execution is a bit complicated but what Harley wants is the simplest thing in the world.

“So this plan of yours,” Parker says.

“It’s really stupid,” Harley tells him. “It’s probably not even a thing. It can also be just a fucked up coping mechanism.”

“I’ve had worse coping mechanisms,” Parker says. “And I’ve been to space with wizards! And this weird other dimensions when people got turned to dust and now I’m five years younger than I’m supposed to be. I don’t think there’s anything I won’t believe at this point.”

“Really?” Harley says, raising an eyebrow. “Just like that?”

The wide eyes are gone, all of a sudden. All of a sudden, Harley can buy that this guy’s a superhero because only a superhero can look that grave, that tired, that grief-stricken, and that determined all in one go. He looks a lot like Tony, that first time Harley met him.

Old and tired. A lot older than they’re meant to be. And too much like they’re crumbling with how hard they’re trying to keep themselves upright.

The memory brings a thickness in his throat. Harley blinks rapidly and tamps it down. He’s not dealing with that. Not right now. Not when he still has a job to do.

“Just like that,” Parker says. “Tony trusts you so I trust you, too.”

“Okay,” Harley says. “Okay. Fair warning: it’s probably gonna involve magic. That’s why I came to you.”

“I don’t know anything about magic,” Parker says.

Harley claps him on the shoulder, heart pounding in his chest. They’re gonna do this. They’re really gonna do this. They’re really gonna fix things. The notion is almost as terrifying as not doing anything at all. “You know a hell of a lot more than I do,” he says. “And a dumbass once told me: what you know doesn’t matter. What matters is the questions you ask.”

\--

_ “So your plan involves time travel?” _

_ “Interdimensional travel, kid. I told you to pay attention.” _

_ “Oh sorry about that. Because that’s so much better. So much more feasible and all.” _

_ “You know this sass? I do not miss this sass.” _

_ “You love this sass.” _

_ “Whatever.  _ Focus.  _ Interdimensional travel. It’s the only way to fix this.” _

_ “Interdimensional travel that involves magic?” _

_ “And the power of love.” _

_ “Of course. Who could forget the power of love?” _

_ “Exactly. Now you’re getting it.” _

_ “And you’re sure you want to go to  _ me  _ for this. There are about a thousand more qualified people to do this who is not some stupid twenty-one year old! Literally anyone! I don’t know anything about any of this!” _

_ “What have told you about calling yourself stupid? Jeez, I thought we broke you out of that already. Kid I went to you. I went to you because I know you can do this. I know you’re the only one who can do this. Not anyone else. You have their help but you’re the only one who can do this.” _

_ “Why?” _

_ “Because you are.” _

_ “And if I can’t?” _

_ “You don’t think about that part that hard. One step at a time, kid. One step at a time.” _

_ “Worst. At. Pep. Talks. Ever.” _

\--

Parker gets the shit they need. He gets it easily. Everyone seems eager to help him out, even if he doesn’t actually give a good reason and he’s shit at lying. Harley can buy that. He can actually really buy that. Those puppy dog eyes aren’t there for nothing.

“So Doctor Strange lent me this book but he also said the plan was stupid and that it was probably not going to work--”

“Probably?”

“Most likely not gonna work but he said if we’re really gonna do this, we might as well read this, which was what I was asking him for to begin with but anyway. I got the book. He showed me the spell but I didn’t really understand it--”

“That doesn’t matter right now,” Harley cuts him off. He’s not even sure either of them  _ can  _ do the magic they might need to do. Is it something they can learn out of a book or are people just born with it? It’s a problem for a later time, though. Now he has other things to think about. 

_ One step at a time,  _ he tells himself.  _ One step at a time. _

“What matters more is we actually understand what’s going on so we don’t accidentally fuck anything up. So first question: what’s it like when you got dusted? What did you do for five years?”

Parker bites his lip, looking down. Harley looks away, staring at the complete tome that is the book Strange gave them instead of the way Parker’s hands shake.

“It was--It was like sleeping,” he says. “Or like, I don’t really remember most of it, but it was like when you’re really, really sleepy in detention. I don’t really remember what was going on around me. I could hear all these voices, so many voices, all this white noise, but it was like I couldn’t open my eyes to find them. Like I couldn’t move at all.”

“But it was a place,” Harley presses. He tries not to think about what Parker’s saying too much, either. Tries not to think of half of the universe--trillions upon trillions, if not more--in this one place, all trapped there without any choice in the matter. Scared. Alone. Confused. Half-asleep and not knowing anything about what’s going on. It sounds like a nightmare, the worst nightmare Harley’s never even thought of.

Harley’s not thinking about it, though. He has other stuff to deal with right now.

One step at a time.

“It was a place,” Parker says. “It was warm and comfortable, like I couldn’t make myself want to leave.”

“And after? When you got out. What happened then?”

“There was--well, there was the snap of a finger and it was like a light. Everything was white all of a sudden and it was like I could feel again. It was like I could breathe. Everything was just  _ there  _ all of a sudden and…” he trails off.

“The rest is history,” Harley says.

Parker bites his lip again. He’s drawn blood already. They should stop, Harley thinks. They should stop before they go too far and find an answer they don’t want to hear.

Or they find the answer they  _ do  _ want to hear. Harley doesn’t want to think about it, is terrified of thinking of a future where this dumb plan, this stab in the dark made of dreams and hopes and hallucinations and astronomical levels of denial actually works.

“The rest is history,” Parker echoes. “Does it help?”

Harley runs a hand through his hair. “I don’t know,” he says. “Maybe, I--I have to ask because you were there. What did he look like when he--when he--” Harley can’t make himself say it. Not out loud.

He can barely make himself think it, most days.

Parker seems to understand. There’s this sort of broken look in his eyes. Harley hates himself for being the one to put it there.

“He looked dead.” He sounds empty when he says it. Like whatever was in him went back to that time when it happened and just left his body behind. “He was still breathing, I could still hear his heart beating, but there wasn’t anything in his eyes. Not anything. He didn’t say anything. Just like he was--like he was already gone and his body figured it out too late.”

There are a few tears that escape Parker’s face. Harley doesn’t know what to do. He thinks he should hold him, touch him, remind him he’s not alone--that’s what Pepper or his mom would have done--but Harley doesn’t know how to do that.

The only comfort he can give is, “we’re gonna bring him back, Peter. We’re getting him back.”

Parker sniffles, looking down at the ground. His hands are clenched into fists to stop from shaking. Harley’s are too.

“Of course we are,” he says. “We have to.”

Harley is silent, taking in deep and even breaths. Tony can’t be gone. Not permanently. Not when he has a daughter and a wife and an entire world to live for.

It’s an entire level of denial he’s reached. Harley’s almost proud if it wasn’t so sad.

“So the plan,” he says. “Because the way I see it, you guys didn’t die. The snap, we all thought you guys had died. But I don’t think you did because what would be the point of that? It wouldn’t mean anything at all. You couldn’t have been brought back. You didn’t die, you just stopped existing  _ here  _ because you were somewhere else. And that’s what he did, didn’t he? Sent an entire army to another place. Away from this universe. Just like magic.” Harley snaps his fingers. “Here one moment, gone the next.”

“What does that have to do with Mr. Stark?”

“You said it yourself,” Harley says. “He was gone before he left. Think of the snap as a door opening for all that shit he wanted to send away. What if using all that power didn’t kill him but--”

Peter’s eyes widen. “What if it dragged him through with it,” he says. “Like his spirit?”

“Something like that,” Harley says. “I don’t know. I barely understand magic. But something like that, sure.”

“Then how do we get him back?”

That’s the question isn’t it? It’s not like they can just come charging back to wherever Tony is now and drag him out kicking and screaming. He doesn’t think Parker’s that kind of hero and Harley’s no kind of hero at all.

“We go in there and ask him to go back,” he says. “It’s the way in magic stories all the time, isn’t it? The most powerful thing of all.”

“What is?”

Harley thinks of Pepper’s sad half-smiles, of Morgan quiet and not speaking. He thinks of Rhodey and Happy who don’t seem to know what to do with themselves now that the fight is over and Tony’s not coming back.

He thinks of his mom and his sister, gone and then there again, still unchanged, still looking at Harley the same way. He thinks of the tightness in his chest, the way his throat seizes up everytime he looks up and sees the world as full as it was five years ago, buzzing with life instead of broken and decimated. He thinks of the pain in his entire being, the way he knows he’ll do anything to keep all those people, to keep things the way it is now, to keep everyone he cares about close because they can disappear with just a snap of a finger.

He thinks of him and Peter, two kids not letting go, fighting against the laws of the universe just to get one guy back because no one else seems to want to take care of it.

That’s probably not fair. Harley can’t bring himself to care. He’s tired and he wants things to be okay again.

“True love conquers all,”he says, and there’s this half-smile on his lips that feels like the beginnings of something new.

\--

_ “Why’d you pick me?” _

_ “We’ve been over this. Now you’re just fishing for compliments.” _

_ “I’m not--I’m just--You have an entire phonebook of superheroes and geniuses and I’m just a kid from Tennessee--” _

_ “And I’m just a mechanic, remember? You’re better than you give yourself credit, kid. Sometimes someone normal is just what you need to save the world.” _

_ “Do you really think we can do this?” _

_ “Are you panicking?” _

_ “Maybe a bit.” _

_ “Then do what you told me to do.” _

_ “And what’s that?” _

_ “You’re a mechanic now, too, aren’t you? You’re all grown up. Not just a kid with a potato gun anymore. Then just build something.” _

\--

Parker goes to Doctor Strange for the spell. Parker doesn’t think it’s gonna work. Harley just told him that his puppy dog eyes would work on literal demons from hell.

Parker just blushed at that. Harley decides he’s gonna take care of that later, too.

Harley goes to Pepper. He’s been putting it off for a long time.

They’re in the living room couch. Morgan’s off to bed. Pepper should be too. Harley should be too. They’re having hot cocoa instead. If things go to plan, Peter would have convince Doctor Strange to do his thing tomorrow, so really they’re gonna be doing the thing tomorrow.

Tomorrow is when they find out if things go according to plan or if Harley was just plain delusional all along.

“There’s something I have to tell you,” he says to Pepper. Pepper raises an eyebrow. She takes a sip of hot cocoa.

“Are you finally telling me about that secret project you’re working on with Peter?” she asks.

Harley can’t even bring himself to be surprised. Of course Pepper knows. Pepper knows everything.

“Friday told on me, didn’t she?” he says.

“She just said you had a secret project and that Peter’s been coming over to see you. You two have really bonded, huh? Tony would have been terrified. He didn’t want the two of you to meet.”

“Why’s that?” 

Pepper smiles her half-smile again. “Something about the two of you teaming up and taking over the world. You know how he gets.”

Pepper’s voice falters.  _ Gets,  _ she said. Not got. It’s hard, Harley thinks, thinking of Tony in the past tense when everything about him screamed the opposite. Harley still catches himself at it sometimes, though Parker’s the worst of the lot, apart from Morgan, that is.

“About that,” Harley says. “What we’ve been working on. I don’t think you’re gonna like it.”

“Are you actually planning on taking over the world?”

“No, but that would have been a cool idea.” Harley takes a deep breath. He buries his face in his mug for a while before emerging. He doesn’t say anything until he can properly look Pepper in the eye again. “We think--and it’s still a pretty big if--but we think we might have found a way to bring Tony back.”

Silence. They’re too high up and the windows too thick to hear the New York traffic. Harley wishes he could, just for something to distract him. Pepper’s staring at him, mouth parted, clutching her mug of hot cocoa like a lifeline. Her face has gone pale. Harley wants to look away but he can’t. He can’t do anything.

“I--” Harley starts to say but he doesn’t think he wants to apologize. Not for this. Not if it’s gonna work.

There are a lot of other things to apologize for, though. For the world ending, for half the universe disappearing, for living through five years of hell and taking advantage of Tony and Pepper’s kindness to make it a little less hellish. For staying long past his welcome because he doesn’t belong anywhere else anymore.

For Tony dying. For not having the right words to say, not knowing the right things to do.

_ None of that’s your fault, kid. _

_ Maybe not but I didn’t fix it. I didn’t fix any of it. _

_ You can’t fix everything. _

_ I just need to fix one thing. _

“Is it dangerous?” Pepper asks softly. “What you and Peter are planning, is it dangerous?”

“I--I don’t know,” Harley says.

Pepper lays her mug gently on the coffee table and scoots over to Harley, wrapping an arm around his shoulder and pulling him close.

“You’re a lot like Tony, you know that?” she says. “You and Peter but you especially. Always so reckless. Always jumping headfirst into whatever problem you find. Always too smart for your own good.”

“Hey,” Harley protests half-heartedly.

“So much like him,” Pepper says. “And snarky, and angry at a lot of things, and scared of a lot more things. And so brave. You’re all so ready to throw yourself into danger just to save other people. You take too much after him.”

“He’s not my dad,” Harley says.

“And yet.”

“I just want to fix things,” Harley mumbles. If he can fix this one thing, just this one thing in this incredibly broken world, then maybe things will be okay.

Maybe.

Pepper sighs. 

“I’m not going to stop you,” she says. “I know there’s no stopping you. I tried to stop him and--” Her voice cracks but she pushes through nonetheless. “It didn’t work. He was meant for greater things. He was meant to save the world. Maybe you and Peter are too. So I’m not going to stop you but I need you to promise me, I need you to promise that you’ll do everything you can to get back safe. I can’t lose much more, Harley.”

She presses a kiss to his forehead, all soft and gentle and so very kind. Harley almost buckles under it.

It’s a surprise, somehow. It’s a weird realization. He knows Pepper cares about him, of course he does, but he just assumes it’s because Pepper cares about everyone. Harley can’t imagine caring about a sixteen-year-old who suddenly turned up and started living with you out of the blue for five years with nothing to show for it. 

But she does. Pepper’s holding him with a tenderness that’s just for him. Like the way she holds Morgan, like Harley knows she once held Peter Parker. It breaks his heart a little, though he’s not sure why. It should make him happy, shouldn’t it?

“We’re coming back, Pepper,” he says. “We’re all coming back. Everything’s okay.”

Pepper lets out a breath. “You know?” she says. “I really wish I could believe that.”

“We are,” Harley says.

“Well then,” she says. “Just to make sure, I’ll just have to come with you, don’t I?”

\--

_ “You ready, kid?” _

_ “As ready as I’ll ever be." _

_ “Well then, I guess I’ll see you on the other side." _

_ “See you Tony.” _

\--

Everything has a price, nothing comes for free. Equivalent exchange, laws of physics, whatever you want to call it. You want something, you have to pay for it.

According to pop culture, the only exception to that rule is true love. True love trumps power, trumps magic, trumps death.

At the risk of sounding like a complete and utter sap, true love is the most powerful thing in the universe. It’s more accurate than anyone thinks. No one really knows why.

It takes their blood, all three of them plus Morgan. Doctor Strange incants a spell. He opens a portal.

Stepping into the other world--soul world, Doctor Strange had called it--is an experience. Doctor Strange opened the portal for them, giving Harley a knowing look he can’t understand. Harley ignores all of it. He holds Pepper’s hand and Parker holds his other one.

“Be quick,” Doctor Strange. “I can’t hold it for long.”

The soul world is beautiful as it is terrifying. It’s an entire world enveloped in orange light, with a silence so infinite it’s deafening. Parker sucks in a sharp breath the moment they step through and Harley squeezes his hand. He doesn’t know what else to do. He hopes it’s enough.

Harley looks up and there, standing at the center of it all is Tony Stark, dressed like he just emerged from his farm house, looking at them with the most serene smile on his face.

Pepper lets out a sob. She lets go of Harley’s hand and reaches out.

“Tony,” she says, voice trembling, “it’s time to go home.”

“I knew you’d come,” Tony says, taking her hand and pressing a kiss to it. Pepper pulls him into an embrace.

Harley lets out a breath. Parker squeezes his hand. Harley’s shoulders are shaking and he thinks he might be crying, honest-to-god crying for the first time since The Snap. Parker might be crying too, Harley’s not sure. But Parker, he’s standing right beside Harley, not going anywhere, just being there, with Harley.

Tony emerges from his embrace long enough to head towards Harley and place a hand on his shoulder. It’s warm and solid and real. Harley dares to look up at him. Tony’s eyes are kind and so full of love. Harley lets himself sink into it. Parker doesn’t let go of his hand.

“You did good, kid,” Tony says.

“Really?” Harley asks. “Just like that?”

“Just like that.”

Harley lets out a quiet breath. Things are gonna be okay, he thinks. Things are gonna be okay.

**Author's Note:**

> So, I'll probably go back to this universe once I'm not so busy.
> 
> I didn't expect Harley/Peter to be a thing, but it's probably gonna be a thing.
> 
> Comments are always, appreciated <3
> 
> Also come cry over endgame with me at tumblr on [discowlng](https://discowlng.tumblr.com)!


End file.
